PRESS RELEASE

NACON: Q3 2020/21 Sales: 48.7 M€, + 20.3% - Seite 2

GAMES

Due to Q3 publishing releases limited to just two new games targetting profitable but narrow niches (Monster Truck, Handball 21), sales were down by 19.7%.
The share of digital sales grew further to represent 74.4% of quarterly sales.
The contribution of the back catalogue ⁽³⁾, a source of high margins, was up very sharply to 6.9 M€ (+ 216% compared to Q3 2019/20).

ACCESSORIES

Accessories continued their strong growth with 32.5 M€ sales up 58.7%, thanks to the growing success of RIG headsets and sustained sales of Nacon accessories, particularly of licensed controllers and headsets.

Sales for the first nine months up 29.9%

Over the first nine months of the financial year (from 1 April to 31 December 2020), sales rose by 29.9% to 135.3 M€. This achievement resulted from strong growth in the back catalogue ⁽³⁾  (24.9 M€ compared to 7.5 M€ over the same period in 2019/20) and from the momentum of premium headsets in the Accessories business.

⁽³⁾ back catalogue : video games released on previous fiscal years

Prospects: confirmation of targets

Nacon is again anticipating growth in Q4 2020/21 thanks to:

• the highly anticipated release of Werewolf : the Apocalypse - Earthblood, and the release of PlayStation5 / Xbox Series X|S versions of Monster Truck, Tennis World Tour2 and Hunting Simulator 2 ;
• contributions from digital sales and the back catalogue;
• the order book for RIG headphones, which remains high;
• the release of the first accessories dedicated to the new Xbox Series X|S console.

At the same time, the release of Blood Bowl III, the first game in the catalogue to feature the live ops⁽⁴⁾ model, has been postponed to the first half of 2021/22 in order to optimise its quality, satisfy this franchise’s large community and maximise the title's commercial potential.

Despite this postponement, Nacon is confident that it will achieve its annual targets: sales are expected to be at the top end of the 160-170 M€ forecast range with an 18% COI rate⁽⁵⁾.

Nacon has also just announced the signature of an exclusive agreement for the acquisition in full of its 10th studio, the Australian company Big Ant, an expert developer of individual and team sports games (tennis, rugby, cricket, etc.). This transaction considerably strengthens this mainstay of Nacon's portfolio by giving it exclusive access to Big Ant's productions in this strategic segment.